It wasn't normal for him to feel as though he wasn't in the loop. He was accustomed to having eyes and ears in every situation. Even if he played dumb or told people he was clueless, he almost always knew more about what was going on than they did.

So it didn't surprise him one bit that this feeling he suddenly had that there was more going on than he could conceive of...he didn't like it. He didn't like not having the Seer in his mind to readily provide him with information. He didn't like having to comb through memories of former visions, trying to remember them and what they might have meant.

He didn't like knowing that there was something going on with his wife that he didn't know about.

She'd been quiet after David and Hook's visit. Unusually so. Certainly, it was typical of her to spend long stretches of time in silence, reading and working, and the pair of them had never felt the need, even in their castle, to engage in unnecessary conversation, but this kind of quiet was different somehow. The men left and the pair of them had continued their work, but her light and cheerful air had disappeared. She was stoic. Her face set, her body going through the motions while her mind focused on something unknown, and that was the part he hated the most.

Anna of Arendelle…Belle's mood had started with her finding the inventory card with that girl's necklace. It had grown worse when David and Hook came in and were looking for that very necklace she'd paused over. He didn't believe in coincidences. The idea that these were two separate incidents, both connected to the same girl, seemed outrageous to him. And yet he couldn't for the life of him figure out what they had in common. Just has he couldn't figure out how Emma had managed to get herself trapped under ice with Elsa of Arendelle.

That was, of course, the only natural conclusion. The necklace belonged to Anna of Arendelle. Hook and David claimed Emma was trapped under the ice with a woman who had ice powers and was looking for her sister. If the necklace belonged to Anna and Anna was Elsa's sister, and the unnamed perpetrator of the attack was looking for her sister who had owned the necklace, then she was looking for Anna, and the woman was Elsa. Elsa of Arendelle who also had the same ice powers her Aunt had once had. Everything fit.

There was only one problem. Elsa was currently trapped in an urn in the Enchanted Forest. The last dealing he'd had with Ingrid of Arendelle had been in the middle of some kind of Curse she'd attempted to start. Anna had placed her sister in the urn, and he'd taken the urn from Ingrid in exchange for the Sorcerer's Hat, which he'd last seen with Anna. He'd slipped the necklace into his pocket on the advice of the Seer, then promised he'd exchange Elsa for the hat when Ingrid brought it to him. Given the nature of the urn Elsa had been sitting in, he'd placed it into the vault he kept in the castle, and that's where it had been ever since…ever since…

Fuck.

Two nights ago. Before he and Belle had eloped, when Emma and Hook had returned and shared the tale of their trip to the past, they'd mentioned his vault. In their version of events, events he couldn't remember because he assumed he'd taken a potion to purposefully rid himself of dangerous memories like that, they stated that he'd stored them both in his vault for safekeeping. That was where they'd gotten the portal back to their time activated. Portals always had a pull, a special type of magic that drew people in, he couldn't remember where he'd placed that urn amidst the junk but if it wasn't secured...

Suddenly, it was of utmost importance that he put the pieces together. The second Belle excused herself to go make them lunch across the street, he attempted to call Dove, but his phone went straight to voicemail. He resisted the urge to throw something at a wall and break it. He knew Dove charged his phone in the kitchen during the night. If the power had been out and the phone had been on too low reserves, it was likely the battery was dead. He tried his home number, but after several rings, all he heard was Dove's voice on an answering machine asking him to leave a message, and given the fact that he wanted their association to be as limited as possible, that wasn't going to happen.

He'd have driven over there himself, but he had yet to introduce Dove to Belle and couldn't think of an excuse good enough before she walked back into the shop with their lunch.

None of this was coincidence. It couldn't be. The longer he and Belle sat in their silence with each other, the darker the darkness got and the lower the temperature dropped, the more he knew that none of this was a coincidence.

Emma and Hook being in the same place Elsa of Arendelle had been.

A woman with ice magic.

The Sorcerer's Hat reappearing in that mansion at just that time.

Anna's necklace…the only thing that was missing from his shop…the thing that had startled Belle not just that morning but all day as they'd worked.

He didn't understand what was going on, and he didn't like it. But he knew that Belle was at least one question he might be able to answer.

When she went over to the apartment to make dinner, he searched his mind for something from Belle's past that might connect with Anna but came up empty. As much as it was a disappointment, it wasn't a terrible surprise. He had, in his days in the Enchanted Forest, added both Belle and Anna into his rotation for the people he checked in with regularly, but they had both been later additions. They'd both been nearly adults when he learned of their importance in his life, which left many of their years unresearched. To his memory he could not ever remember them crossing paths, however it made sense they might. Arendelle was directly across the sea from Belle's Kingdom. They were neighbors. And with both women being princesses, it wouldn't shock him if they'd met, but was it more than that? A woman didn't stay silent all day because of a passing acquaintance; at least Belle didn't. So, what was it? How did she know the girl? What was it about that necklace and the rumors that had shocked her so?

For that, he didn't need magic or even the tongue of the Dark One. He only needed to be the person she married.

"You've been awfully quiet all day," he muttered as he moved into the back room when they finished their dinner. She was sitting on the cot, idly watching the candles on the table flicker and continue to burn down.

"Just reading," she shrugged, motioning to the book on her lap. "Waiting for the lights to come back on like normal."

She was lying.

It was pitch black in the shop. Still without power, and now that the sun had set, they were back to candlelight, as the air inside began to grow just as chilly as the air outside. He'd suggested they go home before dinner, but she had politely declined, saying she didn't want to leave the shop without power, and he'd indulged her request, even though he suspected there was more to her desire to remain in the shop than just waiting for the lights to come on.

She wasn't going to make this easy on him, but it was fair. Too often, he was on the other end of the questioning, making it difficult for her to find the answer she sought. Turnabout was fair play, and he was a far more deft player than she'd ever met.

"Well…" he sighed, turning to a cabinet and pulling out a few spare blankets he kept tucked away from Mr. Gold's old cursed bachelor days. "I'm sorry to inform you that you live in a place where normalcy is fleeting."

She smiled when he wrapped one of the blankets around her shoulders before finally taking the seat beside her and spreading the other over their laps. She smiled…but she still didn't speak.

"What are you working on?" he asked, nodding to the book in her lap and noticing that it wasn't a novel, as he'd expected, but rather one of the spellbooks he kept on hand. It was simple and harmless, but seeing her read it, the reminder that she was beginning to understand the concepts in it…he was still getting used to that.

"Laws of magic…"

Beginner magic. Basic magic. Magic that, if the brief conversations they'd had when Emma had gone missing were any indication, was well below the level of comprehension she was currently at. Which could only mean that she was attempting anything to take her mind off of what she was truly bothered by. He knew that feeling, and because he knew Belle, he knew how to use it to his advantage.

"Belle…" he sighed before reaching over, closing the book on her lap, and moving it to the other side of the cot where it would be out of sight and hopefully out of mind, leaving her with nothing but what was bothering her. "I really don't want to talk about magic right now."

"What would you like to think about?"

"Anything but magic," he insisted, putting his hand on her cheek and doing his best to take up as much headspace as he could so she didn't have time to think of anything besides him and what was bothering her. She wanted to talk. She loved to talk! All he wanted was for her to talk to him about it.

With a sigh of her own, she moved closer to him, enfolded his torso with her arms, and lay her head against his chest as if to rest and-

"I don't know how you did it," she muttered unexpectedly against him.

"Did what?" he returned the embrace and quietly sifted his hand through her hair, doing his best to recreate their nighttime conversations in the sanctity of their bed. She would get there.

"Tolerated being at the beck and call of everyone who ever needed something for years… centuries!"

David and Hook's encounter? That was what was bothering her?

No.

She'd been quiet before they came into the store, ever since she found the picture of the necklace she'd been off, there was something else. Or else, something besides the visit from the men.

"I did it by knowing there was something waiting at the end of it for me. Baelfire, now you…" he answered honestly, placing a kiss on top of her head.

"They need you all the time," she argued. "They never show appreciation. They just expect you to have all the answers. There's never a minute of peace!"

Another picture was beginning to come into clearer focus in his mind. There most certainly was something regarding that necklace that was bothering her, but there was this, too. Her knowledge of magic had grown in the last year since he'd been away, and she'd mentioned herself that she'd essentially been confined to the shop in his absence, she'd become the one that they'd turned to for magical advice and answers.

The visit from David and Hook didn't bother her on his behalf, at least not entirely. It bothered her because he suspected that had been her life while he was away. She had become the new Mr. Gold. It had been so long since he'd been the Dark One that he'd forgotten, but in the beginning, when all he'd wanted to accomplish were his own goals, having everyone burst into his space all the time had been entirely overwhelming and then frustrating. That was one of the reasons he'd started conducting so much business from his castle. He liked the fact that if they wanted his services, they'd have to be just as inconvenienced as he was to get them.

Those days of annoyance were long since behind him. But for Belle, a woman who had just wanted to enjoy her honeymoon and some time with him all on her own, she was only just discovering the annoyance of it. And what advice did he have to offer to her?

"You find different ways to obtain peace, to experience calm and comfort." He tightened his grip on her. "This works perfectly fine for me. You are my peace."

Gods willing-

"And you are mine," she whispered back, a confession that made him feel his heart was about to burst from his chest. Yes, that was what he wanted. For her to be his peace and for him to be hers. Of course, he'd also love to know what was bothering her before Hook and David had stripped them of their peace, but…baby steps. The night was still young.

"You think we'll ever have a normal life?" she asked suddenly. "You think there will ever be a time that we don't have to worry about magic or deals or requests? Daggers?"

He couldn't stop the chuckle of mad joy that came out of his mouth as he remembered that the one thing that might be able to give them was here in this shop.

"A few days ago, I would have said 'no,' but now-"

They both jumped and squinted their eyes as something in the front of the shop demanded their immediate attention. It wasn't a member of the Charming Family or someone who had come to make a deal or with an emergency. Quite the opposite, actually.

There was light! It was streaming in through the windows, probably from his sign and the streetlights. The building was humming again with electric energy that he felt test his magical wards. But they held.

"The lights are back on," he commented. "That's a good sign."

For the first time since she'd plucked that damn note card from the stack, a smile grew on her face as she looked out the windows at the brightening world around them.

"I guess they found what they were looking for?"

Her tone was hopeful and meaningful. It wasn't the tone of someone relieved but rather someone who assumed they should be. There was something there, something that was still bothering her, that he was determined to sniff out. But he had all kinds of methods to assist him in that endeavor. As long as the power was back up and running, then he had time to keep digging.

He rose from his place beside her and blew out the candle on the table. Then, he experimentally flipped the light switch by the door, and they both squinted at the light that greeted them.

"I can't promise we'll ever have a normal life," he muttered, coming to stand before her. "I can't promise that we'll always have peace beyond each other, we'll always have to take what we can. But can give you normalcy in some ways. Tonight, for example…" he extended a hand to her and gave her the most dashing smile he could muster. "Would you like to go home, Mrs. Gold?"

The sigh that forced its way out of her mouth was most certainly one of relief. She nodded, then put her hand into his own. "Always."

With that promise secure, he pulled her to her feet and kissed her once more.

These are the chapters that remind me why I was so meticulous about writing TDOC:The Dark Curse. I worked so hard to make sure that Rumple knew as much as he needed to know but not an ounce more, nothing that would ever interfere with future plots like this. Keeping Belle and Anna's relationship from Rumple in that particular fiction was hard, because, if you'll remember, Rumple was watching them both at this time. And given the fact that Rumple had his eye on the hat, I couldn't imagine a reason why he would stop watching Anna and, therefore, miss Belle showing up in Arendelle, so I chose those chapters to give him something even more important to do. He found the hiding place of the Dark Curse and went after that, allowing ample time for Belle and Anna to meet, do their thing, and then go their separate ways and by the time Rumple had the curse and checked in again, there was nothing to see. I did it all because I did genuinely want him to experience what Belle feels with him so often, the feeling of not knowing what is going on in her head. Obviously this is just the beginning of that effort that was started so long ago in The Dark Curse, but it's going to pay off. I promise.

Thank you, Rsbeall12, for your review of the last chapter. One of those fun surprises that I mentioned in the last chapter is actually coming up next. I know that it may seem like 4x02 is done now, and if you were reading Moments, it certainly would be, but like I said, there are twists and turns ahead, and the next chapter, our last in 4x02, is going somewhere I'll be shocked if anyone could guess. I'm excited for you to read it! Peace and Happy Reading!